Senior Minister: Reverend Molly Baskette

Molly has been with us since November 2003. A lifelong UCC’er, she earned her Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School in 1996. She spent a year after graduation in service to the Casa San Jose Orphanage in Colima, Mexico where she found a second home.

A native of Boston’s North End and Dorchester, Molly is glad to be serving Jesus in the heart of the city! She loves how small neighborhoods in big cities can bring people together in warm, creative ways. Her passions in ministry include leading service-oriented mission trips, community organizing for justice and peace work, and helping people discover ways to integrate a peaceful, moral and dynamic spirituality into their day-to-day lives. She lives and plays in Somerville with her husband Peter, son Rafael, and daughter Carmen.

Molly is a recent cancer survivor, and blogs about cancer, motherhood and ministry at the Holy Spirit Portal, revmolly.tumblr.com. Take a pass through the Portal!

Email: mbaskette@firstchurchsomerville.org

Associate Pastor: Jeffrey Mansfield

Photo and biography coming soon!

Email: jmansfield@firstchurchsomerville.org

Church Administrator & Building Supervisor: Jamie Thompson

Jamie joined the staff of First Church in September 2008 and works in the church office three days per week, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons. In addition to producing the weekly church bulletins and bimonthly church newsletter, she manages the church’s administrative affairs and oversees building rentals. Prior to joining First Church, Jamie worked in the Stewardship and Development department at the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Originally from southwestern Ohio, Jamie first arrived in Boston as a student and immediately fell in love with the city. She holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and philosophy from Boston College and has lived and studied abroad in Oxford, England and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Jamie is also a state-licensed massage therapist and has a part-time massage and bodywork business in Brighton, where she currently resides. Her passions include liberal religion, progressive politics, social justice, literature and creative writing, holistic health and the mind/body/spirit connection, traveling, and parenting her thirteen-year-old daughter, Sophia.

Email: office@firstchurchsomerville.org

Music Director: Thom Whittemore

Thom came to First Church in 2005 and assumed the role of Music Director in 2007. He rehearses and conducts the choir, selects music for congregational singing, works with the Children’s Choir, and plans for the growth and development of the music program.

Thom has been active in church music since he was a boy in South Carolina. He has sung with such notable choirs as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus (under the direction of Robert Shaw), the Chancel Choir of the Cathedral of Christ the King, and the Classical Music Festival Chorus in Eisenstadt, Austria. Thom was previously the choir director at Pisgah Lutheran Church in Lexington, SC.

Thom holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of South Carolina and has studied choral conducting at New England Conservatory. He is a member of the American Choir Directors Association. Thom lives in Somerville with his husband, Tim.

Email: music@firstchurchsomerville.org

Organist: Hugh Hinton

Hugh Hinton joined First Church as organist and pianist in September 2010. Hugh is originally from Louisiana and came to Boston to study music at Harvard and New England Conservatory. He graduated with a doctorate in piano from New England Conservatory and presently teaches at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge. He has performed around the world, including a memorable tour of the Middle East where he played in Damascus, Syria, and live on the “Good Morning Kuwait” TV show. He lives in Medford with his wife, Heather, and son, Isaac.

Email: organist@firstchurchsomerville.org

Sunday School Teacher (Flying Hedgehogs): Open Position

Email: sundayschool@firstchurchsomerville.org

Sunday School Teacher (Godly Play): Ann Yocoubian

Photo and biography coming soon!

Email: godlyplay@firstchurchsomerville.org

Nursery Attendant: Emily Rourke

Emily Rourke joined First Church as the Nursery Coordinator in November 2010. She is an undergraduate at Tufts University majoring in economics, and is originally from Belmont, MA. She currently lives on the Tufts campus in Medford, MA where she is active in theater and the daily newspaper. She loves kids and is so happy to be a part of the First Church staff!

Email: nursery@firstchurchsomerville.org

Church Custodian: Blanca Peña Portillo

Blanca Peña Portillo became the church custodian in February 2009. A native of El Salvador, she has been in the Boston area since 1993. Blanca keeps busy as mother to Graciela, Santiago, and Emily, cheering their many futbol games, and wife to José of 13 years. She loves to learn from different cultures and to keep growing as a person.

Community Minister: Rev. Kerrie Harthan

Kerrie is a native New Englander who grew up in Lynn and Ipswich, MA and Cape Elizabeth and Brunswick, ME. A Community Minister of daily discipleship, her ministry is one of breaking bread with those who would not darken the door of a church. She’s had many ministry adventures: university and parish ministry, seminary admissions, maritime ministry, boat building ministry, urban environmental ministry with the MassReLeaf Ministry Project and other groups seeking to save endangered urbanwilds of the Charles River Basin.

Kerrie is married to Gloria, and they love to brew beer, garden and gather with friends and family around a crackling fire (or a candle!) at their home. To those who are looking for a faith community she says “Every child needs a family. Every spiritual searcher needs spiritual kin. Every boat needs a safe harbor: First Church is my homeport. It is a welcoming and safe harbor for all.”

Email: kharthan@firstchurchsomerville.org

Community Minister: Rev. Laura Tuach

Reverend Laura S. Tuach is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and was ordained by the Essex Association of the United Church of Christ in 2001. After graduation, she served as a parish minister at the First Congregational Church in Winchester, MA. She then went on to work as the Associate Director of Partakers, a faith-based, non-profit organization committed to the advancement of restorative justice, rehabilitation, and healing transformation of both prisoners and society.

She now is the Assistant Director of Field Education at Harvard Divinity School, counseling students discerning a call to ministry and working with field education supervisors. She and her husband, Dave, live in Cambridge. She is a yoga practitioner and teacher, and has a daily Buddhist meditation practice.

Email: ltuach@firstchurchsomerville.org

Community Minister: Jason Donnelly

Jason has been a member of First Church since 1997. After completing his Master of Divinity at Andover Newton in 2001, Jason studied theology at Boston College, where he recently earned his Ph.D. Jason began the ordination process with First Church in 2004 and looks forward to a career serving the church as a pastor/scholar. He lives in Watertown with his wife Sue, daughter Ruby, and son Abraham.

Email: jdonnelly@firstchurchsomerville.org

Community Minister: Rev. Jeff VonWald

Jeff joined First Church Somerville in 2008 while serving as Protestant Chaplain at Tufts University. An ordained UCC minister, he is a 2004 graduate of Harvard Divinity School, where he also was on staff for several years in spiritual life and other student services.

As of 2011, Jeff serves overseas with his wife and fellow First Churcher and Harvard Divinity School alum, Julie Rossate, coordinator of the ELCA (Lutheran) Global Mission’s Young Adults in Global Mission program in Jerusalem and the West Bank. There, volunteers live, learn, serve, and build relationships that hopefully help take steps toward improved understanding across denominations and nations, and a just and peaceful future for all people in the region. Jeff assists Julie in coordinating volunteer opportunities and logistics; gathering the volunteers for learning, prayer, and reflection on their experiences; and helping visiting church groups interested in gaining increased understanding of the current situation in addition to seeing holy sites.

Julie and Jeff very much continue to understand First Church as their church home while serving and worshipping ecumenically overseas, and look forward to visiting whenever they are in the Boston area.

Email: jvonwald@firstchurchsomerville.org

Community Minister: Rev. James Matarazzo

Jim grew up in Winthrop, Massachusetts and had a “wicked strong” Boston accent until about age 17 when it mysteriously vanished. He works as an independent consultant on faith-based responses to the HIV pandemic in developing countries. He has worked in international HIV research and programs for the past thirteen years, including several years based at the joint Brown and Tufts University Centre for AIDS Research in Providence. He currently serves as Project Director for the Positive Faith Initiative, an organization which equips faith communities to respond to HIV in the former Soviet Union.

Jim received his BA in History at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and graduated in 1990. He studied theology at University of Edinburgh and received his M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1996. He was ordained at the Church of the Covenant, Boston and has been a Community Minister at First Church since June 2006 (now on leave overseas). Jim has lived in London, England since March 2007.

In addition to his consultancy work, he serves as minister to a new emerging church plant in central London called Andrew’s Place. Andrew’s Place is supported by the Church of Scotland, and Jim holds affiliated clergy standing in the Church of Scotland. He is also beginning a PhD at the University of Glasgow. Although he lives in London, Jim is frequently in Boston and visits First Church whenever he is in the area. His long-term plans are to return to the States after he finishes his PhD and serve as a full-time pastor in a UCC congregation.

Email: jmatarazzo@firstchurchsomerville.org

Community Minister: Rev. Heather Hinton

Photo and biography coming soon!

Community Minister: Rev. Reebee Kavich Girash

Reebee was ordained in our sanctuary, and was previously a member of FCS from 1996 to 2003. She renewed her membership in our community in 2011. A 2002 graduate of Harvard Divinity School and an ordained UCC pastor, Reebee has been a settled pastor as well as a sabbatical interim. She is a UCC Boundary Awareness Trainer and will be serving on the Board of City Mission Society beginning in the fall of 2011. She is currently focusing some time and vocational energy on environmental justice and climate change issues. She lives with her husband and son in Arlington.

Community Minister: Rev. Carol Taylor

Photo and biography coming soon!

Rest and re/New Minister: Keith Marzilli Ericson

Keith has been coming to First Church since 2004. In 2008, he helped start First Church’s Wednesday evening experimental worship service and has been one of its leaders ever since. A lay leader authorized to this ministry by First Church, he loves helping others discover the ministries to which they are called.

Originally from New Jersey, Keith came to Massachusetts for college and has stayed for the contradancing ever since. He loves theology, music, and economics. You can find him at Rest and re/New on Wednesday evenings.

He has been known to sing tenor, strum the guitar, or play the Native American flute. He has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard and spends most of his days at Boston University wearing his professor hat. Keith lives in Cambridge with wife, Gianna.